This is a new, and, we hope, not long-lived feature on Russia Insider. Ukraine’s civil war is still very much ongoing. Both sides are exchanging fire. Civilians and soldiers continue to die on both sides.

DONi was recently founded by a Finnish journalist and Russian businessman whom we know, and we have every reason to believe that their reporting can be relied on as truthful. More information about the agency follows below this report.

Due to its slow, simmering nature, events in Novorossiya rarely make headlines, so people forget there is a real war going on.

Donetsk, Thursday, Feb 25, 16.30 pm. Exclusive to Russia Insider

(Attn readers: this is frequent feature – if you would like to have clarification of facts mentioned here, additional information, more explanation of why certain events are happening, please ask us in the comments section, or email the author at: i.burya@dninews.com This will help us provide you with information you want to have.)

Over the past two days the intensity of shelling has decreased. The 207 incidents of shelling reported by the DPR Defense Ministry are a less terrifying experience than the roughly 800 incidents of shelling before. Nevertheless they still threaten the lives of civilians and cause a considerable damage to their homes. According to the Ministry, the latest shelling resulted in two civilians being wounded in a suburb of Donetsk and a 10-year-old boy suffering shell-shock in Gorlovka, a city to the north of the capital of the DPR.

Following the 2014 Crimean referendum which saw the Black Sea peninsula join Russia shortly after the Ukraine presidential coup and ensuing territorial conflict between pro-Kiev and pro-Moscow regions, many speculated it is only a matter of time before the Donetsk region, subsequently elevated into People’s Republic status, which has been engaged in constant warfare with the Kiev army (which is in such bad shape it recently drafted a disabled man without arms) would follow suit.

We now have the answer.

Having waited for over a year for the Ukraine civil war/conflict to be relegated to back page status, if that, Putin has finally given the green light, and as Xinhua reports, leaders of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” are planning to hold a referendum on seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia, the Donetsk-based Ostrov news agency reported Wednesday.

“The attempt of a tank breakthrough was made last night in the area of the settlement of Zhobunki located on the outskirts of the airport,” the Donetsk news agency quoted Basurin as saying

MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military made an attempt to break into Donetsk airport using tanks, spokesman for the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Eduard Basurin said on Sunday.

“The attempt of a tank breakthrough was made last night in the area of the settlement of Zhobunki located on the outskirts of the airport,” the Donetsk news agency quoted Basurin as saying.

The fact that Kiev’s authorities describe the episodes when Ukrainian units open fire on one another as DPR militia’s violations of the ceasefire, the spokesman for the self-proclaimed DPR said

MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. Confrontation among Ukrainian Armed Forces’ units in Donbass has resulted in armed conflicts, the spokesman for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Saturday.

“We have registered cases of a sharpening confrontation not just between Ukrainian regular army’s units and ‘volunteer battalions’ but also among units of Ukraine’s Armed Forces,” the Donetsk news agency quoted Eduard Basurin as saying.

Asia Times’ roving correspondent Pepe Escobar just returned from a reporting trip to the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the pro-Russian enclave in the Donetsk Oblast province of eastern Ukraine. The area’s been the scene of heavy fighting between pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian military. Escobar traveled to Donetsk at the invitation of Europa Objektiv, a German-based non-governmental media project. He traveled at his own expense.

I’ve just been to the struggling Donetsk People’s Republic. Now I’m back in the splendid arrogance and insolence of NATOstan.

Quite a few people – in Donbass, in Moscow, and now in Europe – have asked me what struck me most about this visit.

I could start by paraphrasing Allen Ginsberg in Howl – “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.”

But these were the Cold War mid-1950s. Now we’re in early 21st century Cold War 2.0 .

Two top Cossack commanders in the People’s Republic of Donetsk and a seasoned Serbian volunteer fighter are adamant: the real war in Donbass has not even started.

It’s a spectacular sunset in the People’s Republic of Donetsk and I’m standing in the Cossack ‘holy land’ – an open field in a horse-breeding farm – talking to Nikolai Korsunov, captain of the Ivan Sirko Cossack Brigade, and Roman Ivlev, founder of the Donbass Berkut Veterans Union group.

Yesterday, when we reported that the last Ukraine outpost in the rebel-controlled eastern territory, the town of Debaltseve, has fallen into separatist hands, we concluded that “perhaps the only question is whether fighting continues around Mariupol which would enable Russia to have a land corridor all the way to Crimea.”

Moments ago we got the answer when Reuters reported that “pro-Russian separatists have launched mortar attacks on government-held positions near the coastal town of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine and are building up their forces there, local military reached by telephone said on Thursday.”

Windows were shattered and homes shaken in Donetsk after a huge blast rocked the vicinity of a city chemical plant which was under rebel control. Kiev and the militants accuse each other of causing the blast.

The powerful explosion took place at 10:50pm local time on Sunday. Local militia reported that a military chemical plant DKZHI was the target of Kiev’s artillery shelling.

Witnesses saw the sky lit up by the explosion, some nearby living residents had their windows broken by the blast’s shockwave and many others felt the ground shake, RIA Novosti reported. Even those living in nearby towns said they felt the tremor.

A senior commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic’s military reported Monday that American-made weapons, M16-A5 assault rifles, grenades, as well as means of communication were found in the Donetsk airport, previously occupied by the Kiev-led troops.

DONETSK, January 19 (Sputnik) – US-made weapons, as well as hundreds of high-power explosives, were found in the Donetsk airport, previously occupied by Ukrainian military, a senior commander of the militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said Monday.

“During the investigation of the new terminal, our units found large numbers of American-made weapons. Those are M16-A5 assault rifles, grenades, as well as means of communication,” Eduard Basurin, deputy commander of DPR militia, told journalists.

With NATO’s top military commander, General Breedlove, proclaiming that fighting in Ukraine is worse than pre-truce levels(and noting he could not confirm Poroshenko’s Russian force numbers accusations), the news overnight, as The Telegraph reports, that Ukrainian forces appeared to withdraw from Donetsk airport last night, ending an 8-month battle in a bitter blow for pro-Kiev forces and apparent triumph for the Russian-backed separatists they are fighting. While the Pro-Russian separatists’ Pyrrhic victory over the completely destroyed (as we noted here) airport may be a blow, a Ukrainian military spokesman on Thursday played down the surrender of the terminal buildings, saying it was simply a tactical withdrawal. Additionally, Russia has denounced an attack on a bus in separatist-held Donetsk which killed civilians as a “monstrous crime.”

Ukrainian forces appeared to withdraw from Donetsk airport last night, bringing to an end an eight-month battle in what will be seen as a bitter blow for pro-Kiev forces and a triumph for the Russian-backed separatists they are fighting.

Over the past few days there has been renewed, large-scale fighting over the airport in Donetsk. Now, after months of almost non-stop shelling there is almost nothing left of what was a previously a new, modern facility. As Conflict-News reports, this video shot by a Ukrainian activity group using a multicopter drone gives the viewer a birds-eye view of the ruins of what was once Donetsk International Airport.

It shows not just the damage to the buildings and planes housed there, but also the scars of months of battles, including ruined amoured vehicles.

In what the pro-Russian separatists call “an act of genocide,” Ukraine’s President Poroshenko signed a decree Friday that will explicitly withdraw state support for the regions within a month. While appearing to implicitly recognize the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as autonomous, the decree means that the central bank will no longer service bank accounts, prisoners will be transferred (inmates with minor offences will be released), and perhaps most troubling as the cold winter begins, the order covers all public services, including crucial ones, such as schools, hospitals, and emergency services; and local heating and power plants will be subject to new laws that could involve cutting energy supplies altogether to the plants that don’t pay. Luhansk’s leader exclaimed, “the total socio-economic blockade of Donbass is de facto an act on genocide and devastation of our people,” and as the images below show, bank runs have already begun across the region with long lines forming at ATMs.

MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that more than 400 bodies have been discovered in mass graves near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, in what he described as “horrific” evidence that pointed to a war crime.

“This is obviously a war crime. Already more than 400 bodies have been discovered in [mass] graves outside Donetsk and we hope that western capitals will not hush up these facts [because] they’re horrific,” Lavrov said, adding there was an apparent blackout of the incident in Western mass media.

Kiev and self-defense forces signed a memorandum aimed at effectively halting all fighting in eastern Ukraine after talks in Minsk. It creates a buffer zone, demands a pullback of troops and mercenaries, and bans military aviation flybys over the area.

The signed memorandum consists of nine points, former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma told journalists following peace talks in Minsk, Belarus.

“The first [point] is to stop the use of weapons by both sides; the second is to stop all military and militia units in their positions as of September 19. The third is to ban the use of all types of weapons and offensive action,” former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, who represents Ukraine at the talks, told journalists.

Earlier today, we got a definitive confirmation that when Obama was talking about “costs” when jawboning on the ongoing Ukraine civil war, he envisioned not only Germany, and thus Europe, both of which are teetering on the edge of a triple-dip recession due to Russian sanctions, but Ukraine itself. The reason: the Ukraine economy appears to have ground to a halt following an overnight report that the war-torn country’s industrial output plummeted 21.4% Y/Y in August, above the 18% estimate, and some 12.7% on a monthly basis. As the chart below shows, this was the biggest drop in industrial production since the global crisis of 2009 and followed a 12% fall year-on-year in July.

And, then, there is this summary of the situation, by the Russian military analyst, “Vineyard of the Saker”:

“all the signs are that the JRF [Junta Repression Forces] have reached their breaking point: this is the moment when a military force suddenly and completely collapses, like a dam which blows out under the pressure of water. The JRF is not retreating on one, two or even three directions, it is retreating everywhere (except north of Lugansk). Entire battalions are leaving the front under orders of their battalion commanders and without the approval of the Junta leaders. At least one such battalion commander is already being judged for desertion. The entire Ukie [Ukrainian Government] leadership seems to be in a panic mode, especially Yatseniuk and Kolomoiski, while the Nazis are mad as hell at the Poroshenko administration. There are constant rumors of an anti-Poroshenko coup by outraged Nazi nationalists. And then, there are the absolutely staggering Ukrainian losses..

As Russia’s 300-strong ‘humanitarian’ convoy of white trucks slithered towards the Ukraine border, it appears, according to The Guardian, that, in spite of the market’s exuberance at this morning’s comments of “avoiding conflict,” Vladimir Putin sent a real ‘green’ military Russian convoy across the Ukraine border late Thursday evening.

So @RolandOliphant and I just saw a column of APCs and vehicles with official Russian military plates cross border into Ukraine.

While the white trucks came to a halt well short of Ukraine’s border, a different Russian convoy did cross into Ukrainian territory late on Thursday evening.

The Guardian saw a column of 23 armoured personnel carriers, supported by fuel trucks and other logistics vehicles with official Russian military plates, travelling towards the border near the Russian town of Donetsk.

After pausing by the side of the road until nightfall, the convoy crossed into Ukrainian territory, using a rough dirt track and clearly crossing through a gap in a barbed wire fence that demarcates the border. Armed men were visible in the gloom by the border fence as the column moved into Ukraine.